


Worthy & Valued (One Shot)

by Rebekah_Zellers



Category: NCIS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28816410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebekah_Zellers/pseuds/Rebekah_Zellers
Summary: Tony's selfless act results in his injury.  The journey for Tony & Gibbs is one of enlightenment with Palmer as their tour guide.Father son relationship, friendship rich,Idea came from a story read long ago on FFN, but this is the idea with my spin...Kudos are nice, but I would love to hear from you.  Let's get some conversations going!!
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo & Jimmy Palmer
Comments: 22
Kudos: 68





	Worthy & Valued (One Shot)

Pulling his socks on, Tony yawned trying to wake up before setting off on his morning jog. Pulling on his shoes, the agent stretched one more time before grabbing his keys and heading out.

Looking down the road at his usual route, Tony sighed in aggravation when he saw that the road was blocked off for construction and already filled with workers. Turning around, he decided to just deviate from his norm, knowing that if he didn’t get his morning run in, he wouldn’t be worth anything all day long.

The route had small inclines to the road that made for a better work out, Tony was enjoying the challenge and the burn he was feeling in his muscles. Cresting the hill near the park, Tony sprinted into action at the sight of a speeding car coming towards a woman and her child. Pushing the woman and her child out of the way, Tony felt his body collide with the car, grunting in pain as the crash to the pavement pushed the air from his lungs.

“Oh my god,” the young mother yelled. “Don’t move, I’m going to get you help.”

“Did you get the license number?” Tony groaned.

“I got a picture of the car,” the brilliant blue eyes filled with tears. “I called the police and an ambulance.”

“Is your baby okay?” Tony tried to pick his head up to look, but the pain was too intense. “Did the driver take off?”

“Yes,” pausing to look down the street. “I don’t know which direction.”

“Your baby?” Tony was on the verge of blacking out. “Your baby?”

“Fine,” the young woman looked Tony over as the sound of siren filled the air. “My baby is fine; the ambulance is coming. What is your name? How do I find you again?” Met with silence, the young woman was deeply disappointed to see that Tony had lost consciousness.

The EMT’s loaded Tony’s unconscious body into the back of the ambulance, pulling away before the young woman could get away from the police officer to get his transport information. Going with what she knew, she headed home to change her son’s diaper before setting out for more answers.

“Agent Gibbs,” Marty called after the lead agent as he approached the gate to leave for coffee. “This young woman is looking for information regarding a man seen wearing NCIS sweatpants that was injured.”

“Ma’am,” Gibbs was becoming concerned about the agent, more so when he realized there was a baby that was possibly involved. “Come with me. How old is your little one?”

“Ryan is eleven months old; I’m Catherine.” Catherine walked carefully behind Gibbs to the conference room just outside of Vance’s office. “He had on sweatpants that had NCIS on them, I saw a small emblem on his sweatshirt, but I couldn’t make it out.”

Making his way to the conference room, Gibbs held the door open waiting for Catherine to enter with Ryan. “I will be right back; I want my boss to come in and listen so we can figure out which of our agents could be injured.”

“Ma’am?” Delores made her way into the conference room. “Would you like something to drink? Something for the baby?”

“Water would be great,” Catherine sighed. “If I had known that going for a walk down Garfield this morning would have caused all this, I would have stayed home.”

“Garfield,” Delores stopped at the door. “In Georgetown?”

“Yes,” Catherine nodded. “We try to walk on streets that have good sidewalks.”

“Was this the man that was hit by the car?” Delores pulled her phone from her pocket, pulling up pictures of her with Tony at a picnic just three weeks before.

“That’s him!” Catherine gasped. “I don’t know where they took him, he was unconscious when he was put in the ambulance and I was giving the information that I had to the police.”

“What information do you have?” Delores frantically looked out the door. 

“License plate number and description of the car,” Catherine handed her phone to Delores, she wanted the woman to see the car. “I don’t know here the car went when it drove way.”

“Agent Gibbs,” Delores ran out the door towards Vance’s office, barging into the office, the frail woman handed over the phone. “It was Tony that was hit. She got a picture of the car; she doesn’t know which hospital he is in. He was unconscious when he was put in the ambulance. We have to find him, he gets scared.”

“I’ll run the plates,” Vance sent the picture to himself. “Start checking the hospitals, Ms. Bromstead. Tell them it is official business with NCIS, I am going to send you an agent up so that if you need them to rattle off a badge number.”

It took ninety minutes with Delores and McGee making phone calls before they found a John Doe matching Tony’s description. Gibbs arrived at the hospital, with Ducky in toe. He managed to quickly bully his way into the room where Tony was being kept under observation. 

“He in a coma?” Gibbs questioned. 

“No,” the nurse responded softly. “He has been awake a few times, but not long enough for us to get any information out of him. He keeps asking about the baby. Does he have a baby?”

“No,” Ducky shook his head. “He rescued a child today, which landed him here. May I have a gander at his chart, I would like to see what the lad is dealing with as far as injury.” Studying the chart with a great deal of scrutiny, Ducky sighed with relief. “He is heavily medicated for pain, Jethro. The lad has three cracked ribs, dislocated his shoulder and a lot of deep bruising. He has a concussion and several lacerations which required stitches. I am going to speak with nursing to assure we can keep this a private room.”

“Tony,” Gibbs made his way to the side of the bed. Between the stillness of the man in the bed, the wires, and the tubes, he wasn’t sure which bothered him the most. “I met the little boy, Ryan; he’s good. His mom came to NCIS, she is the reason we found you.”

“Agent Gibbs,” Nurse Murphy called softly. “There is a chair behind you; Dr. Mallard is in the lounge waiting for a fresh pot of coffee to finish brewing. He wanted me to remind you to touch his arm and talk to him. He seems to know Agent DiNozzo very well.” 

“Known him for twenty years,” Gibbs commented as he sat down. “He had pneumonic plague years ago; I want the doctor to know that. Could we get an extra blanket? He gets cold when he is hurt.”

“Of course,” Nurse Murphy nodded. “Dr. Mallard is arranging for a private room; we have a few that would be more comfortable for anyone staying with him. We’ll get him moved as soon as admitting keys the room assignment in.”

“How long do you think he will be here?” Gibbs looked from the nurse to Tony. “He hates hospitals.”

“We are still waiting on some tests to come back,” a strong male voice filled the room. “We are waiting on final imaging reports from his CT scan and all the radiologist reports from his full body x-ray that we did. The unconscious state is from the medication, we had to get his pain under control to take some pictures. Once those meds wear off, he will wake up.”

“You’re not going let him be in a lot of pain, are you?” Gibbs was trying to not raise his voice, knowing that Tony would sense the tone. 

“Of course not,” the doctor shook his head. “What we are going to do is keep him on a schedule of pain meds, there will be no breakthrough pain. Once he sleeps off the sedative, he will be more awake just a bit loopy.”

“Our Anthony likes to belt out some tunes when he is loopy,” Ducky chuckled as he entered the room. “You may want to keep him sedated to keep the volume down.”

“Everyone has a song to sing,” Dr. Hammond laughed. “He will be a welcome change from some of the abusive chaps that we have in here on any given day. We will work around Mr. DiNozzo’s serenade of the staff.”

“I can assign Amanda to him,” there was a snicker from the nurse. “She will sing right along with him; he loves the lively patients.”

“We can transfer him now,” an orderly walked into the room. “We’re going down the hallway to the last room on the left. We will meet you there.”

It was early evening before Tony stirred. “Jethro,” Ducky called out from where he was reading to his friend. “He’s waking up.” 

“Hey,” Gibbs moved quickly to the side of the bed. “Tony? Come on, open your eyes.”

“The baby okay?” Tony croaked out in a panic. 

“He’s fine,” Gibbs reassured. “Catherine brought Ryan to NCIS; she was trying to get in touch with someone to check on you. She is the reason we found you. Vance tracked down the car, Burley made the arrest.”

“Agent Gibbs?” Catherine called from the doorway. “Is it okay?”

“Come in,” Gibbs stepped aside. “Tony, I want you to formally meet Catherine and her son, Ryan. The lives you saved earlier today.”

“Glad you’re okay,” Tony sighed. “He’s cute. Is he okay?”

“He is fine, we didn’t fall when you pushed us.” Catherine smiled as she watched her baby sleep. “I don’t know how to thank you for what you did today. I don’t know of anyone else that would have knowingly thrown themselves in front of car to save me or my baby.”

Tony picked at the imaginary piece of lint on his blanket. “I didn’t think about it, I just saw you holding the baby.”

“Thank you,” Catherine sat down on a chair that Gibbs offered. “Do you know when you are getting out of here?”

“No,” Tony whispered as he allowed his eyes to slip shut, he was exhausted. Not wanting to continue with the conversation, the injured agent gave into sleep with the hopes that the mother and child would be gone when he woke next.

Waking next to darkness out his window, a sliver of light filtering into his room from the hallway, he sighed with relief that he was alone. 

“You want some water?” Gibbs stretched as he stood from the cot in the corner. “Everyone went home, I told them I would call when you were up to visitors.”

“Thanks Gibbs,” Tony accepted the glass of water and the information with relief. 

“What you did was pretty brave,” Gibbs complimented his agent. “Proud of you.”

“Don’t be,” there was a moment of quiet that was so deafening. “It was instinct.”

“Do you want something to eat?” Gibbs waited for his agent to take inventory of how he felt. When the head moved slightly, in what Gibbs interpreted as a nod, he set off for the nurse’s station to see what they could find. Returning with some pudding and graham cracker, the lead agent opened the food and set it before his friend. 

“Guess you need to be hungry at noon and not midnight,” Tony grumbled as he dished up the pudding.

“I texted a friend,” Gibbs said softly as he looked down at his phone when it buzzed. “He’s bringing you something a bit more substantial.”

“Please,” Tony groaned. “It’s not Fornell, is it? I don’t have the patience to deal with Tobias and his ribbing right now, Gibbs.”

Noting that Tony had yet to relax enough to call him boss, Gibbs sat down in the chair at the side of the bed trying to reason out what was going on with his agent. “Not Tobias, I texted Palmer. Knew he would find you something that you like and not eat it before he got here.”

Tony dozed off while waiting for Jimmy and his food, allowing Gibbs some time to ponder what was going on inside the younger man’s head. While his body would take time to heal, the bigger question was would his mind need time too.

“I brought you some coffee,” Palmer handed over the steaming cup of java to Gibbs. “Here are two sandwiches, fries and a cheesecake brownie that you will thank me for later. Oh, you have a respite room. Let’s put you in here to eat, I will stay with Tony while you get cleaned up too. I brought you some sweats from NCIS, I figured you could use a change of clothes.”

“Going to go get my bag out of the car after I eat,” Gibbs closed the door to the respite room allowing Palmer some privacy with Tony. 

“He’s gone,” Palmer whispered. “I brought you a club, Tatar tots, baked apple and several drinks. Stop napping to avoid Gibbs and eat.”

Tony was groggy from the meds as he worked his way through his midnight snack. By the time he was finished, he felt a bit better. “Thanks, Jimmy.”

“Want to talk about it?” Palmer pushed gently. “I met Catherine and Ryan; they are so grateful for what you did. She would like to like to do something to show her gratitude.”

“Palmer,” Tony sighed. “I didn’t do it for the gratitude; I saw someone in danger and just started running. I didn’t stop to think about what I was doing; that isn’t a hero.”

“It is,” Palmer paused. “Do you remember when we went to the park with Victoria and she was going after that duck? That little girl by the pond, she was so unsteady, the rest of us sat back and watched to make sure she didn’t get hurt. You saw her foot slip and before anyone knew it, she was on your shoulders being a queen, but safe.”

“You reacted without thinking,” Palmer sighed. “Tony, that is who you are. You do the right thing without taking the time to think about what could happen to you. When Gibbs drove into the river to save Maddie Tyler, you knew that you had to save them. You didn’t think about your lungs or dying; you thought about Gibbs at the bottom of the river.”

“It’s instinct.” Tony sighed. “Could I have one of the bottles of tea you brought?”

Opening the bottle, Palmer placed it in front of his friend. “You’re a good person, Tony. You deserve the thank you; it is so few times in life that we hear them. I know you did not grow up with positive reinforcements, but that does not mean that is how the rest of your life has to be lived. There are people that believe in you and value you. You are my best friend, Tony. I cannot imagine a world without you in it. The example you set is one that I am so proud to expose my daughter to. What you offer this world has no value to it, it’s priceless. I am so sorry that you father never saw it.”

Gibbs ate slowly listening to the chat that Jimmy was lightly giving to his friend. Gaining some insight into the situation, Gibbs finished up his meal before exiting the respite room. “Going to get my bag and some more coffee, I’ll be back.”

Tony was sound asleep by the time he returned, Palmer had cleaned up from his midnight meal and left him to ponder the words exchanged while they ate. Gibbs had realized that he needed to see Tony’s life through the eyes of someone that was not jaded by the world. Thinking about the insight Palmer had provided, Gibbs gently placed one of his service medals on Tony’s stomach before bedding down for the night.

Dawn broke waking Tony gently with her soft, warm light. Moving to reach for his water, Tony’s hand touched the medal on his stomach. Looking from the box to Gibbs, the injured man felt a peace wash over him. For the first time in his life, he felt valued.


End file.
